My daughter has come home with a project to find out about dogs, the title is "Dogs at war".
She needs to know did any breeds die out and how did they get revived (i presume they imported breeds back into the country).
What happened to jewish peoples dogs? What happened to british peoples dogs? Where dogs used in the war?

Or anything else you can think of, it needs to be about 2 pages long personally i think she could fill that just by the 1st question if you help us :D pleeease!
I've had a look round on the net but can't seem to find much apart from german soldies training the dogs. (Probably putting in the wrong search words)

Sarah

Have a look here Dogs at war link

Otherwise , she can go to Google and type in her requirements and see what comes up

:)

Thanks melody i'll print it off and see what we can get from the library tomorrow, i just can't think what else to put in google to be more specific! :(

Hi,
There was an article about some of the war dogs (First and Second Wars) in the January issue of Your Dog magazine, because they did a piece about the Dickin Medal (animal VC). In WW1 about 7000 pet dogs were donated to the war effort and trained as messengers, guards, cable layers, patrol dogs, ammunition carriers etc.

In WW2 dogs were again used, and also on the Home Front, as search-and-rescue dogs during the blitzes of our major cities, just as they are today eartyhquakes, September 11th etc).

My mother told me that during WW2 many people had their pets destroyed because rationing meant there was not enough food for them. Very few people could afford to keep the large kennels of pedigree dogs as they were used to, and breeding and registrations plummetted. Gene pools were dramatically reduced during both conflicts because of this.

Hope this helps a little.
:)

Thanks Jean yes i did wonder about rationing and how it affected the dogs, it seems a really indepth subject and i think she's going to have to sort out  which direction she's going to take! I thought about breeds dying out would be easiest but alas i can't find any info, so it may be best to go with the jobs what the dogs did during the war.
:)

During WW2 our dogs were fed solely on tables scraps, horsemeat, offal of all kinds (lungs, lights, etc.), and anything the neighbours could or would provide in the way of leftovers. They weren't fat, but they seemed healthy enough.

I never got interesting projects like that to do when I was at school :(

Some breeds nearly did die out in the war and some new breeds were discovered during the war and brought to England / USA by solidiers who created the breed in our countries.  If you have a really good breed book read up on the history of some breeds and im sure it will mention that breed during the war.  Sorry I cant think of any breed in particular but try German breeds because I think some of these were discovered during the war.

HTH

Claire :)

Found this

In the years of the 1st world war the Mastiff was to suffer some decline of numbers this again can be of little surprise to most people as these would have been hard times  but between the 1st and 2nd world wars several influential Breeding Kennels emerged including those of the Havengore Mastiffs and the Hellingly Mastiffs. In 1939 war was upon the nation yet again and yet again the Mastiff was to suffer and in fact by the end of World War Two Mastiff numbers were pitifully low as a result of which a pair of Mastiffs were sent over to the U.K by a Mrs Heather Melhuish of British Columbia in Canada.These were Heatherbelle Stirling Silver and heatherbelle Portia. Other important Mastiffs were imported from North America and this much needed stock did much to help this desperate shortage.

Certainly the war was behind the discovery of the Weimaraner in Germany.  This breed nearly did die out in Germany during the war and it was UK and US servicemen who served in Germany that were behind introducing the Grey Ghost to Britain and America.

There were about 7 Old English Mastiffs left in the UK after WW2, they imported from Canada to build up the breed again.

Thanks for all the info i will print it off for when she gets home so if you have any more!! It is making interesting reading i can tell you :)

Apparently dogs were not allowed in public air raid shelters. The NCDL put up notices telling dog owners which private shelters allowed dogs.The PDSA would remove injured dogs from bombed houses and treat them.

Hope that helps a little.

Daisy

See  http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk/waiting/ser.gif

Daisy

Wow fancy that! I think i'd dig my own shelter if my dog wasn't allowed in :D

It was because they were worried that dogs might get hysterical because of the noise and attack people - which is quite reasonable I suppose - but must have been terrible for the owners :(

Daisy

I knew I had read it somewhere, must have been in my Weimaraner breed book :D :D

Not dogs - but my aunt and uncle had to have their horses put down at the start of WWII :(

Daisy

This site might be of use.
:)